Woman Is Philly’s Only GOP Mayoral Candidate

A heretofore unknown woman has cast her hat into the ring of Philadelphia’s race for the next mayor. Melissa Murray Bailey is a rare unknown quantity in the mayoral field, a political virgin. To add to the strangeness of it all, she’s the only Republican candidate who signed up to run. For extra novelty factor, she’s also the youngest candidate at just 36 years old. Tuesday was the deadline for prospective candidates to enter their names in for consideration, and no other GOP member came forward for nomination.

In this photo provided by CBS from Bailey herself, the youthful mayoral candidate faces the future boldly.

All that’s known about Bailey is that she works out of her home for a Swedish branding company. She decided to run entirely of her own accord. In an interview with CBS, Bailey said that a goal of her run as mayor would be to keep young families from moving out of the city. Bailey, who has a four-year-old daughter of her own, knows all too well the struggles that young families face living in a big, expensive city. She says that she adamantly doesn’t want to leave the city, and she wants others not to leave either. She says that, as a businesswoman, she is used to running things and hiring people and innovating new ways of doing things – all qualities that would make her a fine mayor, she says.

The city’s Republican officials tried to entice better-known GOP members to run, but to no avail. Sam Katz, a Republican mayoral candidate several times over, has changed party affiliation and will likely run as an independent if he chooses to run at all.

The mayoral primary will be held on May 19th.